


Ninety-Nine

by palaceintheair



Category: Kingdom Hearts
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-03-19
Updated: 2010-03-19
Packaged: 2017-10-08 03:17:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,148
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/72130
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/palaceintheair/pseuds/palaceintheair
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sora rescues the Dalmatian puppies, because Leon is super cool.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Ninety-Nine

_Leon_ _: There are Dalmatians named Pongo and Perdita living in the Second District . . . They're quite upset, these Dalmatians._

_Yuffie: Squall can't stop worrying about them._

_Aerith: Please find the puppies for him._

* * *

Sora could not have helped but notice how cool Leon was. Even after their first terrifying meeting, Sora's main impression apart from fear had been of Leon's incredible coolness. Leon's leather jacket was cool; his long, messy hair was cool; his gloves were cool; the chain he wore was cool; his belts were cool and, most of all, his sword was totally cool. Despite all of the attention paid to Sora's keyblade, he was still jealous of Leon's big shiny sword. Leon said it was a gunblade, but whatever, gunblade or sword it was still way cooler than a keyblade. Swinging around a giant key was kind of dorky.

Even cooler perhaps was the fact that Leon's real name was Squall. Sora wasn't sure why the mysterious use of a false name was so cool, but it just was. One day in the small apartment in Traverse Town, Yuffie said, rolling her eyes, "Leon changed his name in a pointless fit of self-loathing," but Aerith corrected her gently, "Leon feels that he failed the people who lived in his world by failing to save them and he refuses to use his true name until they are saved. It's a form of penance."

Sora didn't really know what penance meant, but he thought that Leon's attitude was definitely cool. Wishing he could tell Leon how he felt, Sora worked out an imaginary speech in his head. He could say something like, "I'm supposed to be the Keyblade Master who has all of these really amazing powers, but I couldn't even save one little island from the Heartless."

Somehow, though, looking at Leon's stern expression and the barrier of his folded arms as he leaned against a wall in the coolest stance imaginable, Sora couldn't bring himself to say anything after all. It wouldn't have been cool, he felt, and despite what Leon might have thought about the keyblade's choice of a champion, Sora wanted nothing more than to convince Leon that he was cool too. So when Leon told Sora to find the Dalmatian puppies, Sora threw himself into the task with relish.

Sure, Sora's first thoughts were always for Kairi and Riku, but he was always also on the lookout for lost Dalmatian puppies. Donald tried to complain about Sora holding things up by searching underneath every shrub and behind every rock, but Sora knew that Donald and Goofy were only in a hurry to find someone themselves, so he ignored Donald's spluttered protests. With every puppy Sora found he found a spark of pride as well and he imagined at least a flicker of recognition on Leon's face when Sora finally found all of the 99 Dalmatians and brought them home safely. Often when everything seemed hopeless it was this one small foolish hope that kept Sora going; the hope that in some small way Leon would acknowledge that Sora was cool.

Sora finally arrived at Traverse Town, bearing the last two wriggling puppies in his arms. The fluorescent lights in the Second District lit the Dalmatians' fur bright blue and green. Sora had seen no sign of Leon, Yuffie or Aerith. He'd checked all of their usual hangouts first, the little café in the First District, the vacant apartment building in the Third District, the strange underground waterway where Leon liked to practice his fighting moves. Sora scoured all of Traverse Town in his searches. Finally Sora tripped over his own feet and almost ran into Cid who was standing around outside the moogles' Synthesis Shop.

"Keep yer pants on, kid. What's yer hurry?" Cid asked, chewing on a toothpick.

"Have you seen Aerith or Yuffie or Leon?" Sora blurted out, juggling the puppies who were getting more and more restless all the time.

Cid scratched his head, like he may have just forgotten who any of those names belonged to.

"Naw, they've gone on to Hollow Bastion, It's where we all come from, so they headed home," Cid said, shifting the toothpick in his mouth and scratching his nose.

Dragging his feet, and barely keeping his grip on the struggling puppies, Sora brought the last puppies home. He cheered up a bit at the looks on Pongo and Perdita's faces when they saw the puppies. They were really intelligent looking dogs and Sora could swear they were smiling at him with their tongues lolling out at the sight of their reunited family.

When Sora met up with his friends in the library of the Hollow Bastion he didn't have the nerve to come right out and mention the puppies to Leon. He didn't want to seem to boast; it wouldn't have seemed right. But when Sora found Aerith, skimming the titles of the books on a shelf by herself, she asked, "How is everyone in Traverse Town?" And Sora told her all about the puppies, Gepetto, Pinocchio, Cid and Huey, Duey and Louie. Aerith listened attentively; she cared about everyone. She convinced Sora to stay and rest with them at Hollow Bastion for awhile.

Later that evening everyone gathered in the kitchen with cups of hot chocolate and pie irons. Leon was there too although he stood at the window and stared out at the bleak prospect of cliffs and falling water and darkness. Aerith, who presided over the kettle and the fixings for dinner struggled to find conversation to keep spirits high. After smacking Yuffie's hands away from the pepperoni twice and trying to carry on a conversation with Goofy about the gardens at Mickey's Palace, Aerith suddenly stopped looking desperate and smiled.

"Did you know, everyone, that Sora has found all of the Dalmatian puppies? Pongo and Perdita must be so relieved to have their family back together again." All of them paused for a moment and smiled wistfully. Yuffie stopped snatching olives and Donald stopped demanding that she "leave some for the rest of us." Sora thought to himself, "all of them have lost family too, just like me."

"Awesome!" Yuffie declared, punching Sora in the shoulder.

Aerith handed Sora another pie iron, then shot a knowing glance between Sora and Leon's back. Sora tried to wipe the look of longing that he was shooting somewhere between Leon's shoulder blades off of his face, but he figured Aerith probably saw him.

"Squall? Isn't it wonderful what Sora's done?" Aerith asked with exaggerated nonchalance.

Leon muttered into the window pane, "It's about time and call me Leon."

Aerith scowled at him, "that isn't very nice you know _Leon_, Sora worked hard to save those puppies."

But Sora didn't mind. He swore that he caught sight of Leon's lips turning up at the corners in the dark reflective glass of the window.


End file.
